The Experience

[jasminegld]

I'm a Christian. I had a fascinating conversation with an atheist a week or two ago, in which he and I understood each other on a point of faith for the first time. I've been working on finding a way to understand at least a little the atheist approach for over ten years now, and finally got somewhere in this conversation.

I talked to him about trying to sort out where polyamory fit in my life, before I knew the word polyamory. I told him about doing some heavy duty soul searching, wrestling with the Scriptures. And I said,

"And then I had THIS EXPERIENCE."

And he said, this man who identifies as an atheist said,

"YES! THE EXPERIENCE!"

I was confused, because always before, I had always associated a mystical experience like the one I was talking about with people who identified as believing in God. But here was a man breaking the mold I was familiar with.

So he told me a little about his own EXPERIENCE, and it felt like I understood, at least a little.

He mentioned someone else describing a similar EXPERIENCE to him as:

Being At One With The All In All.

and I said,

YES.

After knowing each other for years and never being able to quite communicate with each other on the God question, here this man and I finally communicated with each other so that we understood each other, on an experience for which there almost are no words.

It was quite thrilling.

Jasmine
www.uua.org

[Quath]

That's pretty cool. It is sometimes very hard for people to relate on some of these issues when there are so many differences that seem apparent.

I think maybe the closest feeling I had to this may be when I tried to contemplate infinity.